Our typical customer is what we call 770 strategic
770 = Seven to Seventy computers.
The metrics are easy. We are an organisation that is purpose designed to support businesses with between seven and seventy computers.
If you have less than seven computers you are unlikely to have a server and are likely (and often wisely) concerned about limiting IT expenditure. We are providing services you don’t need.
The seventy computer limit is more approximate than the seven minimum. Somewhere after 70 computers you will want to start defining your own IT standards. With a LANcom 770 IT management plan, we build and run the standard pieces, like email servers, in a very standardised way to make supporting them very cost effective. When you have 300 computers and IT staff of your own there is a return in customising the standard pieces like email to your own businesses. Our belief is that if you are a typical 7-70 customers you should only customise the pieces where small changes will make a great deal of difference to your business. Everything else should be standardised.
Strategic
Is IT strategic for you?
In my 18 years I have found that the following philosophies divide the two camps of customers in the 7-70 segment.
Firstly there is the majority of customers who see IT as a bunch of connected computers that run software. You pay someone to install the software and connect the computers. From time to time you pay someone to fix broken software and broken connections. If you are in this group the bad news is you cannot be one of our customers. The good news is that there are many break/fix consultancies that can give you the services you need. They will only come when you call them and they will charge by the hour.
If you are one of our customers you will see IT as strategic to the success of your business. Typically, Information technology will be a cornerstone of your service to your customers. At years end, the results you planned for your IT systems to produce will have a large influence on the results for your business.
Rather than seeing IT as a bunch of pieces that need connecting you see IT as a strategic investment that you invest money into to achieve measurable outcomes. You will have an IT budget that includes maintenance of the services, purchasing of depreciating hardware and new projects to achieve new outcomes.
For a typical customer IT is like a salaried employee. 80k per annum is going into IT and you expect the following from that investment - secure and reliable email to and from your business partners, a line-of-business application that gives great service to your customers, accurate and timely accounting, on demand banking, marketing momentum - all in a secure and reliable fashion. 36k of that investment goes to LANcom to be the IT department you would have if your budget was more like 800k. We are charged with running and maintaining these systems in a secure and reliable was and we are totally responsible for that result just like any employee would be. It is a business investment with defined business returns and the relationship exists on that higher plane.
There are occasional exceptions to the metrics (customers smaller than seven and customers much larger than seventy computers) but there are no long term exceptions to the Strategic criteria.